It’s June already and that has prompted me to remind everyone of our 90th birthday celebrations (that’s the Club’s 90th birthday, not any of the members!) on Saturday 24th June, from 2.00 – 5.00pm. We’ll be having a BBQ, stalls, fun-on-the-courts, as well as a big birthday cake to mark the event. So keep your fingers crossed for the weather and bring the family down to the courts for what will hopefully be a sunny and memorable afternoon.But that’s not all we’re doing on the 24th. From 12.00 to 2.00pm we’ll be holding a ‘Try Tennis For Free’ session as part of the LTA’s Great British Tennis Weekend. This is open to all non-members of all ages and abilities; all they have to do is register online at www.clubspark.lta.org.uk. So if you know anyone that would like to give it a try please let them know about the opportunity.

Our competitions calendar is extremely busy and on Saturday 20th May we played our hotly contested Open Doubles tournament. It hadn’t rained for 6 weeks before that and it certainly made up for it that day, when we played in some of the worst conditions I can remember on the tennis courts. Within half an hour all 12 players were truly soaked and it was only a good spread of cakes and lots of hot coffee that kept us going all afternoon. Ally and John, unbeaten in the round robin stage, were narrowly beaten by Ewen and Katie in the first semi-final, with Robert and Jodie overcoming Henry and Louise in the second semi-final. Despite some valiant play from Katie in the final, which at one stage looked as though it could go either way, Robert Adamson and Jodie Horsburgh ran out winners and took the Open Doubles Championship title for 2017 – a big well done to both of them!

Our Open Singles competition is a bit like the French Open at the moment – most of the first round matches played but still a long way to go. So please get in touch with your opposite number and get those matches played as soon as possible.

I said that I would write to you again once we had agreed dates for the remaining tournaments and I can confirm these as follows:· Junior + Senior Doubles – Saturday 9th September· Mixed Doubles – Sunday 8th October· Ladies Singles – still tbcPlease keep an eye on the noticeboard in the clubhouse for further details of all of these competitions, as well as the East of Scotland League fixtures for the Mens and Ladies Vets (we have not entered a team this year in the Summer Social League).

We have received very positive feedback from the Thursday evening trialling of the older juniors joining in with the senior social tennis and I’m pleased to say that the Committee have agreed to extend the current arrangement for the rest of the season. We also agreed to lay on a further adult coaching block after the summer holidays given the keen interest and positive response to the current block; places will be limited so again please keep an eye on the noticeboard in the clubhouse for further details.​I’m also pleased to say that Jodie Horsburgh is starting her Level 1 Coaching Assistant course this month. This requires her to get some practical experience so if you see someone on-court helping Nicol with the Sunday afternoon coaching that’ll be Jodie.Hope to see everyone on the 24th for the big birthday celebrations!John Brennan - Club President​